UTEP football: Coach Kugler arrives, ready to start

UTEP athletic director Bob Stull, left, welcomed Sean Kugler to the podium after formally introducing him as UTEP's new head football coach at the Larry K. Durham Center on the UTEP campus. (Rudy Gutierrez/El Paso Times)

The new UTEP football coach arrived in town Saturday evening and will begin settling into his Durham Center office Monday morning and announcing his staff, which has been completed, in the days to come.

The offensive coordinator will be Patrick Higgins, who coached Purdue in an interim capacity at the Heart of Dallas Bowl following the firing of Danny Hope. Before that, Higgins spent three games as Purdue's interim offensive coordinator after former UTEP head coach Gary Nord suffered a back injury. Kugler's oldest son Robert was a starting offensive lineman at Purdue last year. Higgins also was an assistant under Nord at UTEP.

Kugler was picked up at the airport Saturday evening by his friend and director of football operations Nate Poss.

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Bret Bloomquist

"I'm excited to get here and introduce the staff to each other," Kugler said. "We're having a little dinner (today), talk about our families and spend a lot of time together as a group. We'll get recruiting areas ironed out, talk about our responsibilities.

"I'm excited. I've been excited all week. I'm excited about this opportunity."

Kugler's wife Patsy, younger son Patrick and daughter Kali will remain in Pittsburgh through the end of the school year when Patrick, who has verbally committed to play football for Michigan, graduates from North Allegheny High.

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The family was in St. Petersburg, Fla., for the Under Armor All-America Football Game this weekend to watch Patrick, an offensive lineman, play.

Kugler will begin announcing his staff Tuesday, with one new coach rolled out each day. He confirmed that current coaches Robert Rodriguez, Brian Natkin and Gabe Franklin have been retained. According to sources and reports, the new defensive coordinator is Jeff Choate, and Spencer Leftwich is on the staff. Leftwich, the father of UTEP quarterback recruit Mack, was the tight ends coach at Arizona last year, and Choate was the linebackers coach at Washington State.

Special teams coach Jeff Banks was also invited to stay, but chose to take a job at Virginia.

That leaves three full-time positions unaccounted for, including special teams coordinator, though Kugler indicated those coaches are already hired.

Much of Choate's background is in special teams. It is unclear if he will coach linebackers or move to another position. Rodriguez coached linebackers last season. If UTEP switches to a 3-4, it could conceivably have two linebacker coaches.

Kugler's other immediate priority is recruiting. National Signing Day is Feb. 6, and if UTEP keeps its entire list of 10 commitments together, it would have four more scholarships to give, though attrition among both recruits and current players is expected to add to that. Kugler said the current recruits are staying on board.

"Robert Rodrguez, Brian Natkin and Gabe Franklin have been doing an outstanding job keeping all the guys who are committed to us," Kugler said.

Bret Bloomquist may be reached at bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; 546-6359.Follow him on Twitter @bretbloomquist